Basically they cut down all the trees and otherwise overharvested natural resources to feed an economy that was designed to pamper an elite oligarchy that was living on the backs of the vast majority of the population that did all the real work, causing an ecological and social collapse.

I teach at a public high school and many of my 'kids' are freaking out over this. One is so freaked out that he's moved beyond being scared and has entered the anger phase: "Why are people just sitting around and waiting for it to happen? Can't we do anything to stop it?"

Also, on Dec. 12, 2012, the kids wanted to stop class at 12:12pm. They acted as if it was New Year's - they were cheering and taking pictures and insisted I take a screenshot of my computer's date and time. I gave them about two minutes to 'celebrate' and sent them back to reading Lord of the Flies.

RanDomino:Basically they cut down all the trees and otherwise overharvested natural resources to feed an economy that was designed to pamper an elite oligarchy that was living on the backs of the vast majority of the population that did all the real work, causing an ecological and social collapse./wait, what?//...never mind.

So they wrote a calendar for 5000 years, but they lived like there was no tomorrow? That sounds just like--wait, I think I see where you were going with that.

I dunno, my kids watched the hype over Camping's predictions, saw the billboards, all of that, but they thought it was odd someone would take the word of a random guy that the world was gonna end. They thought it even more odd after we explained that people have been predicting the end of the world since we started recording human history, and probably before that too, and not one of them have been right.

So, what subby is suggesting is if your kids actually are worried about what they've overheard from morons about the end of the world, instead of explaining the truth to them and alleviating their fears, it's better to give them more tangible threats to worry about.

meat0918:I dunno, my kids watched the hype over Camping's predictions, saw the billboards, all of that, but they thought it was odd someone would take the word of a random guy that the world was gonna end. They thought it even more odd after we explained that people have been predicting the end of the world since we started recording human history, and probably before that too, and not one of them have been right.

They aren't even phased by this one.

Well yeah if you want to raise your kids to use logic, that's one way to go.

But some people need to have the government create a website for them that they can just give their kids a link to and get back to their beer.

// How come it's acceptable to point and laugh at people who believe in the Mayan religion, but not contemporary religions?